Although computer-assisted instruction (CAI) favorably affects academic performance and attitudes toward instruction, most CAI programs target mastery but not fluency. This study used a within-subjects, crossover design to compare the effects of CAI that included fluency training with traditional study (TS) conditions on test performance and…

Repeated measures and longitudinal studies arise often in social and behavioral science research. During the planning stage of such studies, the calculations of sample size are of particular interest to the investigators and should be an integral part of the research projects. In this article, we consider the power and sample size calculations for…

Science instructors and textbook authors often use analogies to help their students use information they already understand to develop an understanding of new concepts. This study reports the results of an analysis of the use of analogies in eight biochemistry textbooks, which included textbooks written for one-semester survey biochemistry courses…

This study investigated whether a reflective journal writing assignment would improve students' course performance. A total of 166 students from undergraduate sections of a course taught by the same instructor over three semesters completed the assignment as part of their requirements. Students (N = 317) from five previous semesters of the same…

Cross-cultural teaching and research in Canada and Japan is reported. Ethnographic narrative methods were used to examine Japan's teacher acculturation. Canada's teachers are largely required to work in isolation, to learn their practice through trial and error. There is little provision for mentorship and insufficient time to reflect. In…

The issue of addressing innovation and change in engineering students' assessment is the target of this paper. The contents are an overview of the issues related to the evolution of the engineering learning requirements, a review of the traditional student evaluation methods in practice, a description of a current experiment in engineering student…

Efficiency scores are determined for Canadian universities using both data envelopment analysis and stochastic frontier methods for selected specifications. The outcomes are compared. There is considerable divergence in the efficiency scores and their rankings among methods and specifications. An analysis of rankings, however, reveals that the…

This study applied the maximum expected information (MEI) and the maximum posterior-weighted information (MPI) approaches of computer adaptive testing item selection to the case of a test using polytomous items following the partial credit model. The MEI and MPI approaches are described. A simulation study compared the efficiency of ability…

This paper provides some conceptualisation on educational quality, which could be the basis for comparison with available indicator sets. In a second section standards and benchmarks and methods to define these are discussed. A third section covers the theme of the use and usefulness of education indicators and results from educational monitoring…

In order to engage their students in a core methodology of the new genomics era, an everincreasing number of faculty at primarily undergraduate institutions are gaining access to microarray technology. Their students are conducting successful microarray experiments designed to address a variety of interesting questions. A next step in these…

In this article two studies on the use of diagrams in computer-supported collaborative learning are compared. Focus is on the way argumentative diagrams can be used during collaborative learning tasks, more specifically how diagrams support argumentative interaction between students when they discuss ill-defined topics. The main goal is to…

This study investigated the knowledge base necessary for choosing appropriate statistical techniques in applied research. In this study, we compared knowledge used by six experts and six novices in two types of statistical tasks. The tasks were: 1) comparing research scenarios from the perspective of choosing a statistical technique, and 2) direct…

Background: Grading standards vary widely across undergraduate institutions. If, during the medical school admissions process, GPA is considered without reference to the institution attended, it will disadvantage applicants from undergraduate institutions employing rigorous grading standards. Method: A regression-based GPA institutional equating…

Approaches toward teaching art in schools and methods of teaching art vary according to the teachers' perceptions of the major goals. As the Israeli school curriculum does not set clear guidelines for art teaching, the teachers themselves are free to formulate their aims, curricula, and teaching methods. The purpose of this study was to…

Institutions of higher education are offering more and more on-line courses to students. Do students receive the same quality of instruction with an on-line class as an on-campus class? Specifically, is there a difference in students' outcomes between a face-to-face class and on-line class? This study addresses that question by collecting and…